Word of the Day

Circumambulate “to walk around” is a compound of two Latin-origin stems: circum- “around” and ambul- “to walk.” As we learned from the recent Words of the Day circadian and circumstellar, circum- comes from Latin circus “circle,” which is the source of English terms such as circa, circular, and circumference. The stem ambul- comes from Latin ambulāre “to walk,” which gives rise to English amble, ambulance, and funambulist “tightrope walker.” In modern Romance languages, though nothing is certain, some linguists hypothesize that Latin ambulāre may be the root (following a long series of unusual sound changes) of Spanish andar “to walk” and French aller “to go” (as in the recent Word of the Day laisser-aller). Circumambulate was first recorded in the 1650s.

Ganache “a filling made with chocolate and cream” is a loanword from French, and before it gained its sweet, present-day meaning, it meant “horse’s jaw” and could be used as an insult for another person’s intelligence (or lack of it). Quite the peculiar changes in definition there! Prior to French, ganache was adapted from Italian ganascia “jaw”; the change in spelling from sc to ch is to preserve the “shuh” sound, which is represented in French as ch and in Italian as sc (when followed by an e or i). Ultimately, ganache comes from Ancient Greek gnathos “jaw,” which is not connected to English gnash “to grind the teeth together” but is distantly related to English chin. Ganache was first recorded in English in the early 19th century.

Borborygmi “gurgling sounds in the intestines” is the plural of borborygmus, which indicates a single gurgling sound. Like many singular Latin nouns ending in -us, this ending switches to -i in the plural form, but remember that not all -us nouns from Latin change in this way; one opus becomes two opera, one octopus becomes two octopodes, and—technically—one Prius should become two Priora, though the hypercorrection Prii has won over in popularity. The y in borborygmi shows that, before Latin, the word was borrowed from Ancient Greek: one borborygmós and two borborygmoí, with the -os and -oi endings becoming Latinized to -us and -i according to the custom at the time. Borborygmós was created by imitating the rumbling sound in question, and for a similarly formed word, compare bárbaros “foreign,” the source of barbarian and the name Barbara. Borborygmi was first recorded in English in the 1710s.

Egalitarian “characterized by belief in the equality of all people” is an alteration of equalitarian, with French égal replacing the equal- component. Both English equal and French égal come from Latin aequālis “equal, like,” based on aequus “even, plain, just,” an adjective of unknown origin. Aequus is the source of English adequate, equal, equilibrium, equinox, equivalent, and iniquity. The evolution from Latin aequālis to French égal reflects three common sound changes: Latin ae usually becomes French é, Latin qu between vowels often becomes French g, and Latin suffixes such as -is are either reduced to -e or even dropped entirely. For the first of these changes, compare Latin prae with French pré- “before,” and for the other two, compare Latin aquila with French aigle “eagle.” Egalitarian was first recorded in English in the early 1880s.

Suffrage “the right to vote” comes from Latin suffrāgium “voting tablet,” and though suffrage resembles suffer, the two are not completely related. While suffer comes from Latin sufferre “to endure,” suffrage is ultimately based on the verb suffrāgārī “to support.” These two Latin verbs share a prefix, the preposition sub “under” (which assimilates to suf- when followed by an f for easier pronunciation), but sufferre combines sub with ferre “to bear,” and the -frāgārī part of suffrāgārī is of uncertain origin. The most popular hypothesis is that -frāgārī is related to the verb frangere “to break,” which would make suffrage a relative of fracture, fragile, fragment, and frangible. Suffrage was first recorded in English in the late 14th century.